@vkc The #linux virtual console is wonderful too. I did for a while (that was over a decade ago) work mostly from these. With framebuffer and fbi, I could even view images. I guess it went well because I was doing most stuff from inside #Emacs. (Some of this was on a laptop where, unlike XFree86, XOrg couldn't use the full/"native" video mode, I don't recall why. But the framebuffer console would use the full screen area.)